Discussing Star Wars Battlefront in EA’s latest earnings call, Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore talked about the $50 Season Pass, which he says will add content over the 12 – 18 months and includes new universes:
As we’ve seen with Battlefield with Battlefield Premium, our ability to extend, and as you’ve seen, with 6 million people still engaged with both Battlefield 4 and Battlefield Premium, is key. The engagement numbers – and we see a season pass as integral to that.
What we’ve announced is four extra packs over the next 12 to 18 months coming post-launch. And from our ability, to be very clear, that’s FY 2017 revenue for most of it. You’ll see both new universes. You’re going to see new player actions, obviously new weaponry as well. We think that added engagement and we think the ability for us to be able to deliver against what we need to be able to do from a season pass increases the engagement, and a very important part of keeping the content fresh and our players engaged.
Saying that “the pre-orders are excellent” for Battlefront, Moore adds, “We feel very good about 13 million units.”
CEO Andrew Wilson then talked about the players they expect to attract with Battlefront:
Anecdotally, what we have seen is that Star Wars is bringing in two groups that are very important groups to us. One are gamers that have lapsed, traditionally who have been big gamers in the past and maybe haven’t played for a while, and it’s certainly been a catalyst for those people to come back into the gaming universe as it relates to console. And two, onboarding a new younger age demographic.
And so as we think about that 9.5 million, while there’s absolutely a crossover around our core shooter category that we have very good and strong relationships with, we’re very energized by the opportunity to bring in, one, that lapsed gaming group, as well as adding a new younger demographic going forward. And remember that this is a title, a shooter title that will be more appropriate for younger players than maybe some other shooter titles in the market.
With “stability and scalability of our online services” continuing to be a major focus for EA, Wilson says the extensive internal testing and millions of hours spent in beta “further tested our infrastructure to help prepare a stable experience for our players at launch and beyond.”
[Source: Seeking Alpha via GameSpot]
